


Family

by phoenixgal



Series: Scenes from a Life [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Childbirth, Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-29 19:50:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10860894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixgal/pseuds/phoenixgal
Summary: Harry realizes he really has a family that he belongs to.





	Family

“What do you mean, I can't come up?” Harry said, indignant.

“Whoever heard of such a thing?” Molly Weasley asked, not really responding to him, but more talking to the air around him from where she stood on the steps. “The father does not come in the room.”

“It's my house!” Harry said. “It's my kid!”

“It's just tradition, mate,” Ron said. “She'll be fine.” He tried to usher Harry back to the sitting room, but Harry shrugged him off.

“You have to understand, Ron,” Hermione said, her patient explaining voice on as she hovered between Harry and Mrs. Weasley, “childbirth can be quite dangerous in the Muggle world. And it's common for the father to be there. My father was in the hospital room when I was delivered.”

“Why ever would you go to the hospital to give birth?” Molly asked, bewildered.

Harry had had enough. It had now been almost two hours since he'd gotten Ginny's owl at work. She'd said not to hurry, that the contractions were just starting and it would be hours before anything happened, but now it had been hours and there were all these women blocking his way. It was irrational, but he knew Luna was up there and it particularly bugged him that Ginny should be allowed to have a former lover up there and not the father of her child.

“Ginny and I talked about this,” he said. “I'm going up.”

“That's bad luck, Harry,” Ron said.

Molly Weasley had her wand out, but she looked like she didn't have it in her to hex her own son-in-law. Harry barged past her and up to the bedroom.

It was a bit of a zoo inside. Several of the women gasped and the midwife looked annoyed. Fleur pursed her lips and Angelina raised her eyebrows.

At least Luna looked happy to see him. “Oh, Harry, what a wonderful surprise. Did you know your son is about to be born?”

“Yeah, thanks, Luna.”

“It's a boy?” Fleur asked excitedly.

“We're not telling!” Ginny said with a small gasp.

“Morgan and Merlin, Ginny, the baby will be here any minute,” Angelina said.

Harry was at her side, grabbing her hand before anyone else could try to kick him out of the room. She gripped his fingers far too tightly, but she gave him a small smile. “Hey, you.”

“All right then?”

“Fine,” she said, though she gritted her teeth. “The midwife says it's all normal.”

He felt his heart pounding and he thought he'd jump out of his skin soon. “Good. That's good.” He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.

“You're the one who doesn't look so good,” Ginny said.

“I can get you a calming potion,” Fleur suggested.

“No!” Ginny said.

“No thanks,” Harry said.

The midwife came in with a glass of something for Ginny. “Labor potions,” she said, cheerfully. She was a middle aged witch with stylish square glasses and long, dark hair she had in two braids.

“It is bad luck for the father to be here,” Fleur said, looking scandalously between Harry and the midwife.

“Muggle dads,” the midwife said. “It's just a superstition. If you want him here, Ginny, it's absolutely all right.”

Ginny gripped his arm. “He stays.”

Harry was grateful that at least his status was set, but it didn't help the feeling of being overwhelmed.

For the next hour, he sat at Ginny's side gripping her hand. He felt glued to that spot and his eyes hardly left her face. She was mostly stoic about the pain, which she said was basically discomfort. He knew the witch midwives had things for the pain, but every muggle television show he could remember from childhood suggested that childbirth was fast and scream-inducing so it was odd to see her calmly conversing with all the women in the room and merely gritting slightly as the contractions got closer and closer together.

Finally, the midwife told everyone to clear the room, though she didn't usher him out and Molly Weasley insisted on staying.

“Mum,” Ginny said. “Really, I'll be fine.”

“Obviously I know that, dear. I just want to be the first one to meet him besides the two of you!”

“Oh,” Harry said, in awe. “We're about to meet him.” The terminology struck him as beautifully fitting. Who would he be? What would he look like? Would he have Harry's messy, dark hair or Ginny's red, straight hair? Would he be handsome? Would he be bright red like babies sometimes were? His heart fluttered in his chest with emotions he didn't think he'd ever had.

Ginny finally seemed to enter some kind of actual pain, but the midwife got her to shift positions, standing, then crouching. It was all very naked and messy, suddenly, Harry thought. But neither Ginny nor Molly seemed to mind, so he guessed it was all normal.

And then Ginny was huffing out her breaths hard and fast, her teeth gritted and her grip on Harry's hand tighter than iron.

“Fuck!” Harry swore. “I can see his head!”

The next bit happened so fast he was shocked. One minute Ginny was groaning loudly and the next there was the high pitched cry of a baby.

The midwife waved her wand and all the gooey, mucus mess siphoned off the baby. With another wave of her wand, a tiny blue blanket wrapped around him.

“Would you like to do the spell?” the midwife asked Harry. “To cut the cord?”

“Oh,” Harry said, fumbling to his wand pocket. “Yes. Um… dissecto.” The baby stopped wailing briefly then started again.

“Did I do it wrong?” Harry asked.

“No, dearie,” the midwife said. “New babies just cry.” She handed the little bundle over to Ginny and his attention was suddenly pulled back to his wife. She had settled back against the pillows on the bed. Her face was flushed and sweaty. Her pregnancy robes were all open and her breasts were out. The midwife pulled the sheets up over her partway and cast cleaning and drying spells over the bed as she went.

“You look beautiful,” Harry gushed.

Ginny looked down at the baby and then back up at him. “Have your glasses broken?” she asked. “I'm a mess.”

Harry couldn't figure out what to say. She just looked so beautiful holding him. So perfect. He didn't think his heart had ever felt this full. This was a patronus worthy moment. He thought he might draw on it for years.

“I knitted a cap for him!” Molly exclaimed. Harry had almost forgotten she was there. She pulled the little red knit cap from her pockets and placed it on his head. He seemed to have fallen asleep.

“You can hold him,” Ginny said.

Harry reached out gingerly, sure he would somehow mess this up, but needing to hold his son so much. And then the baby was in his arms, squirming slightly with tiny fists, his eyes closed, his mouth puckered up. He was so very tiny and light. He was so vulnerable. He had a tiny tuft of dark hair protruding from his head and Harry's first thought was nothing more than we made this. He was a part of Ginny and himself.

“Well, well, what's his name then?” Molly demanded.

“James,” Ginny said resolutely.

That was when Harry really broke into tears.

“Is something wrong?” Molly demanded.

“It's all right, Mum,” Ginny said. “Just overcome with emotion.”

Harry stared at James and felt the sense of joy wash over him again. It just brought more tears. They were bit, fat, ugly tears. He didn't think he'd cried like this in years, if ever.

James began to fuss and cry himself.

“You should put him to the breast,” the midwife said. “I have a potion to help bring in your milk, but it may not be necessary if you'll let him have a nip at it.”

Harry reluctantly handed him back and watched as the women helped Ginny get the baby to begin sucking at her breast. Once they were somewhat settled, the midwife put her hand on Harry's arm.

“You should go tell everyone your son was born. That's supposed to be the husband's job,” she explained. “Go on. You can come right back in a few.”

“I'll be fine,” Ginny said. She sounded tired and overwhelmed herself. “I know they're all dying to know. Go on.”

So Harry walked out and down the stairs where he made the announcement. Everyone made too much noise yelling their congratulations over each other. Harry made his way through the crowd of people in his sitting room and dining room, shaking hands and letting everyone pat him on the back. Mostly he wanted to get back upstairs and wondered what the protocol was.

Just before he started up the stairs, he felt a hand on his wrist tug him to the little alcove next to the steps.

Hermione reached her arms around him in a tight embrace. “Congratulations, Harry,” she whispered. “You chose just the right names.”

He nodded.

“Good on you, mate,” Ron said.

Harry looked at the two of them and felt the tears well up again.

“You all right?” Ron asked. “He's not hideous or something, is he?”

“Ron!” Hermione hissed and Harry stifled a laugh, which came out very strangely with his still flowing tears.

“I… I have a family,” he said.

“Who'd you think all these people are?” Ron asked with a laugh.

Harry looked back behind him to the sitting room where so many people were milling around and realized with a small start that he was related to most of them. Luna was there, and a few other non-relations. However, nearly everyone one else was now his brother or sister-in-law. He looked back at Ron and found he was just crying harder.

Ron looked somewhat alarmed. “Blimey, Harry. I didn't…” He looked to Hermione. “What'd I say?”

“I think I get it,” Hermione said. “We've been your family for awhile. Maybe it feels different when you have your own children.”

He nodded. Or maybe, he thought, it just had never sunk in until that moment that he was now part of a real family.

“Go back up to Ginny,” Hermione said, and she pressed a kiss to his cheek. “We'll meet James in a little while, when you're both ready.”

As Harry walked up the steps, he could hear Molly in the sitting room extolling his son's virtues already to the crowd.

In the room, Harry sank onto the bed next to Ginny. James had fallen asleep on her breast, his mouth sucking nothingness every once in awhile, looking a bit like a fish.

He ran his fingers over James's tiny, wrapped up arms and then over his knit cap covered head. Then he brushed them along the curve of Ginny's breast.

“We really are a family,” he whispered, hoping that his voice would be steady for long enough to keep the tears from coming back.

“Of course,” Ginny said. She sounded almost cavalier, but he could hear everything in that of course. He could hear her love, her devotion, her promise, her reassurance, her understanding. She knew.

“James Sirius Potter,” Harry whispered. “We are going to keep the world safe for you. I promise.”

“Don't make promises you don't know if you can keep,” Ginny whispered. “We'll do our best and your father knows that's enough. He's knows it better than anyone else because his parents did that for him, and they both failed and succeeded beyond their wildest imaginings. But now we have you. And we'll love you as long and as well as we can.”

Harry nodded vigorously and placed his head on Ginny's shoulder.


End file.
